The Lunar System

The Lunar System is the new photo book by Hanna Mattes. It connects images shot during a total solar eclipse and in the Atacama desert in Chile with passages of the artist's own prose-poetry. This is how Hanna contextualizes the project:

"The Lunar System describes important relationships in my life: friendships, family relations and love. The System was established as an innocent attempt to mythologize my life. It goes back to when I was a teenager and my friends and I gave each other nicknames that related to the planets and stars in our galaxy. I was the Moon and my best friend the Sun. We still revolve around each other’s axes and my system kept growing in the course of my life. Nevertheless, I never thought much of it and kept it mainly to myself; until I stumbled upon the mythology of the Licanantai, the Indigenous people who have lived in the Atacama desert in Chile for more than 2,000 years. Their mythology revolves around the array of volcanos that borders the desert on the East. The Sun and all the planets and stars rise behind it. They too play a vital role in the mythology. It reminded me of my own system and I started understanding it as a mythology of its own."